Irish Olympian Danielle Hill's terror at thugs who set centre on fire

Extra.ie​

12 hours ago

Two-time Irish Olympian Danielle Hill has revealed she was confronted by masked men at Larne Leisure Centre, where families fleeing violence in Ballymena had been housed, before it went up in flames.
The centre was set on fire on Wednesday while Ms Hill was coaching a group of children, some of whom were as young as six years old.
Rioting in Ballymena broke out on Monday evening, leading to dozens of PSNI officers being injured across the week as violence spread to other towns. People take part in a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town of Ballymena. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Ethnic minorities in parts of the North have seen their homes attacked, while two families who fled Ballymena were temporarily housed 30 kilometres away in Larne Leisure Centre but had been moved elsewhere earlier on Wednesday before the incident.
Recalling the terrifying ordeal, Ms Hill said that the attack on the leisure centre was 'racism in its rawest and most dangerous form' and that the centre was now 'marked by fear and trauma'.
A group of masked men were spotted outside the building by coaches, who quickly ended swimming lessons and had the children taken home before bins were pushed into the foyer and set alight. Two-time Irish Olympian Danielle Hill. Pic:'As I walked outside to move my car, four masked men walked around the corner,' Ms Hill said.
'I've never experienced something like that and it scared me. This is a place that kids enjoy coming to. There was no need for what happened last night. It could have ended very differently.'
The swimmer, who has represented Ireland at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, later took to social media and urged members of the swimming club to 'come together, not fall apart'. Firefighters at the scene where a fire has broken out at Larne Leisure Centre following vandalism at the facility. Pic: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Ms Hill also said she thought the North had moved beyond violence and masked men, adding: 'We can't be back to square one.'
Another swimming coach who was present, Jack Baxter, told RTÉ's Claire Byrne yesterday that it would be months until the leisure centre could be used again.
'We got the kids out of the pool as fast as possible. As the kids were getting changed, we could hear thudding on the windows, which was very distressing for the children.
'Some of the kids were a bit shaken up by it.'
The North's First Minister Michelle O'Neill has called for a DUP minister to resign after he posted about the location of the families being housed at the leisure centre.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons had posted on social media before the attack that some families were temporarily being housed at Larne Leisure Centre and that as an MLA for the area, he hadn't been 'made aware of this decision'.
Mr Lyons 'strongly hit back at any notion' that he had any responsibility for the centre later being attacked, and said the news that families fleeing Ballymena were at the centre was already 'in the public domain'.
Ms O'Neill yesterday denied the incident had led to a crisis in the power-sharing government at Stormont.
Speaking at a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Newcastle, Co. Down yesterday, the Sinn Féin vice president said she stood by her comments but denied there was a crisis at Stormont.
She said: 'There are four parties around the Executive table. We can have differences at different times and we can say we don't agree with the ministers' approach and still get on with governance, that's what I am determined to do.'
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said Mr Lyons said 'very clearly that his intention was to defuse tensions in the local area due to a significant amount of rumour going around'.